Honorable Mutiny
by MiyaUrameshi
Summary: The demons are uprising against the humans, and one demon's sick of it. He enrolls the help of another demon and two sibling elves. What misshaps will they go through toegether?
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1: A Warning

Something wasn't right. I don't know how I knew, but I felt it on the inside of me and I had to investigate it. How could I not notice the whole town running in havoc in weapons and bearing arms. They looked like they were going to war, and that's what I'm afraid of. If they're going to war, that means they're going to attack the humans. I bolted off to find someone who I trusted would tell me what was going on- my parents. They're the only ones who knew how I felt about the war between demons and humans, which has been raging on for thousands of years. Anytime someone tried to revolt against the war, they would be killed. The humans have tried to for negotiations with the demons, but they were killed by the demons as well. There was no way to stop them. They were ruthless and rash.

If anyone thought something of me running, it would be that I was rushing to get ready for the attack as well. I was happy that I didn't have to sneak around to hurry, like usual, because no one thought anything of it.

I bolted into my parent's house to see them sending off my oldest brother who, sadly, still lived with my parents, to war. "What's happening?!" I breathlessly demanded.

My supercilious brother chimed in and too happily said, "We're going to attack the humans! There have been rumors of human conspirators who are trying to wage a full-scale war against us demons. HA! How stupid! Anyway, we're going to go attack them before they even get a chance to raise a full force. Take them by surprise, that is. And then-" I interrupted him. I don't think I could take that much more idiotic blundering for the day.

"What town are they attacking? When are they leaving?"

He, annoyed, answered, "They're attacking the main human town-"

"The capitol?" I sarcastically asked.

"Yeah, whatever. They're leaving by the next full moon. Why are you so interested? 'S not like you'd join or anything, pansy." He started laughing at his own joke, which, wasn't really a joke to begin with, which shows you what stupidity I'm related to. My parents just stared, shocked at the whole conversation. They didn't know the hostility between my brother and I; I left the house about 3 years ago and went to live on a river at the edge of the real to train myself and get away from the demons, even though I was a demon.

Once again, I bolted out of the house and into the heart of the town. I had to see how large their force was. It was huge. I _had_ to warn someone! But who? The elves, yes. They were closest and they had an alliance with the humans. Which also meant that it was going to be hard for me to get in and talk to the queen. But I had to try. I just had to. I had to try to put an end to the madness. If I couldn't, then my life was worthless.

I made a mad dash towards the exit to the path that would lead me to the elves. This time, since I was running against the mob, people realized what I was doing. Some people even started throwing things at me, most of which, I avoided. Unfortunately, a few arrows made it into me. Finally I was at the gate, but I had to get past the guardian. I just ran. He ran after me, but I was lighter. He managed to get a flaming arrow all the way through my left shoulder. Engulfed in pain, I fell to the ground and the guardian caught up with me. I stood up as quickly as I could and pulled my sword out of the sheath and tried my best to fight with my injured shoulder. I couldn't beat this guy with an injured shoulder; I couldn't move fast enough with it. Even though I knew that casting a spell would draw attention to where I was, I didn't have much of a choice. I mumbled a few demonic words under my voice and the guardian froze in place.

I sheathed my sword and ran off as fast as my body, arrow, cuts, and all, would allow me. After about an hour of running, I finally spotted a small house by itself on a hill. I was stumbling over myself from exhaustion from running and bleeding. I didn't know how I was going to ask for help or even if they could help me, but I stumbled into the door and knocked anyway.

In a few seconds, a girl came to the door with a dagger in her hand. I looked up. She was beautiful. "Please!" I gasped. "help… the demons… they're att…acking… the humans." With that last gasp of breath, I tumbled towards the ground into her house and everything went momentarily black.

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

I was excited! My brother had just gotten back from a long quest for the realm and he was finally home to stay for a while! I was making soup (chicken and dumplings) for everyone, since it was so cold out. It had already begun snowing.

"SEREG! EVA!"

"What?!" An annoyed Eva called.

"Diner! Get it before it's gets cold!!!

Eva came bolting into the kitchen. "Mmmm starving!" I dipped her a bowl of the soup and handed it to her, without dumplings. "Thanks! 3"

Next, Sereg came in sluggishly in. I handed him his bowl. "Thanks, sis." He kissed me on the check and sat down at the table. I was so excited! I hadn't had diner with my brother in over a month! I sat down and was started conversing and eating.

In the middle of the diner, there was a knock at the door. I stood up and headed to the other room. "Mana. Be careful. I sense something." I nodded and grabbed the dagger hanging by the door. I pulled it open and a bloody guy followed the door. He looked up at me. "Please!…help… the demons… they're att…acking… the humans" He gasped and collapsed at my fight. I shrieked and Sereg came running into the room.

"What the hell?! What happened??!" I informed him about what he said. "Well, no matter what, he needs to be bandaged and healed. Can you take care of that, Mana?"

"Of course." I nodded. "Eva…" She came straight to me and helped me carry him up to my room. "Thanks."

She growled. "Mana. Be careful. I don't trust this guy. He's demon." She threw a dagger at me. I nodded as she walked off. I didn't sense anything. He seemed perfectly harmless to me. Powerful, true, but harmless. Besides, he wouldn't be warning us about the demons if he was one of them, even though that was rare. I opened his jaw to make sure he was demon. Yup, fangs, he was.

I gently set to work and bandaged him up and took the arrow out of his shoulder. The skin around the puncture was burned, so it must have been a flaming arrow. After he was completely bandaged, I pulled clean clothes onto him and pulled the covers over him so he's stay warm. Then I took my right hand and put my thumb and middle and ring finger on opposite sites of his head, on his temples and said a little spell, "Anta telume. Anta kuile." I floated a foot off the ground and we both glowed blue. I landed gracefully to the ground.

He stirred and looked up at me. "What did you do?" He weakly asked.

"Shhh…" I moved the hair out of his eyes. "I speed up the healing process. You should be fine by tomorrow's eve, if you rest. Go to sleep." His eyes slowly faded and he slept well into the next day.

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

I woke up in a warm bed with sunlight seeping in through the window. Where I laid was very very comfortable and I did not want to get up. But I knew I had to. I had to tell them who I was and why I was here. I had to make sure I could trust them, even though I partially did. I also had to ask them to help me. Besides, that's why I'm here, isn't it?

I yanked the covers off me and threw my legs over the side of the bed and sat up. I stared at the wall for a few minutes, reorienting myself. I quickly stood up. Bad idea. Faster than I stood, I fell to the ground with a loud thud. Within seconds, the same girl I saw last night came in the room and sat on the foot of the bed. She looked down at me and shook her head. "You should have called for help." She headed towards me to help, but I kept on getting up.

"I can get it myself, thank you."

"Hah! Go ahead then, by all means, fall over again. Just another bruise to add to your collection." I glared at her. I started standing again, but fell over. I didn't want to be defenseless! I growled and, to make sure I wasn't completely defenseless, I conjured up my power and I started to glow purple. I settled down after that. Keeping my face away from her, I put my back against the wall and slowly started inching up. I think I'm going to make it! All of a sudden, my knees buckle and I fall back to the ground.

Now the girl was crouching right in front of me. She knocked on my head and said, "Here, stop being so stubborn. Let me help you." She grabbed my hands and helped me slowly to my feet. "Do you need help walking?" I shook my head and took a cautious step forward only to completely contradict myself. I growled.

"I could crawl."

She laughed. "You could. I wouldn't even have to help you down, you could fall all by yourself!" I growled and started chasing her down the stairs. She pushed me into a couch and handed me a bowl of soup. She smiled. "Thought you were the kind of person who would get pissed off my a statement like that" She stuck her tongue out at me and I just glared at her. What else could I do? I mean, she was feeding me.

Another guy was sitting in a chair next to the arm of the couch on the opposite side of where I was, which was were the girl was sitting at. He started talking. "Fist of all, what's your name? Where are you from, all the basics."

"Yuhi. Eh, I'm from the demon realm. As you undoubtedly already know, I'm a demon. As you could probably guess, I'm not on friendly terms with most other demons, only because I don't agree with their ruthlessness and their idiocy." I sipped the soup before it started to cool down too much. It was good.

"I'm Sereg, she's Mana. We're both elves."

"Mm, figured that. This is good, by the way."

"Thanks," Mana answered.

"There's another girl, Eva. You'll see her soon enough. She's the only other person around here, so you'll know who she is. She's also a demon. We'll allow you to stay until you heal, and that's a definite as that'll get until we know more about your situation. We're not going to kick you out, don't worry, unless you're rude or something. So, I believe you said something about demons attacking the humans. Tell us about this."

So, for the next half hour or so, we sat there and I explained how the demons and humans were enemies, and how the hatred had started such a long time ago that no one remembers even when it started or by whom. I explained how they suspected some humans of conspiring, and how they were going to kill them at all costs. When I finished, they just sat there and stared at me.

"So, what are going to do?" Mana said to Sereg.

"The only thing we can do." I heard a voice from behind me. "Team up with him and try to attack the demons."


	2. Chapter 2: A Plan Would Help

Chapter 2: A Plan Would Help

Eva snuck up behind Yuhi, and the result was quite hilarious. He jumped, spilling soup all over his pants, then he jumped even more, dropping the bowl, because he just got hot soup all over his crotch. Eva hung her head, I suppressed a laugh, while Sereg let it all out and was rolling on the floor. "Whoever said that all demons could sense everything in their surroundings was sooo wrong!" Sereg said between laughs.

Yuhi found the bathroom and tried to dry himself off (( )). I cleaned up the mess and filled up the bowl with more soup for when he came back. Eva was sitting in my spot, so I leaned against her. After a few minutes, Yuhi came back, looking like he couldn't make it to the bathroom and peed in his pants. That only made Sereg laugh even more and this time Eva joined in. Yuhi (cautiously) grabbed the bowl of soup and started sipping on it again and glared at us over the bowl. After a long, good, hearty laugh, we settled down and I asked Eva to elaborate on what she meant by the whole attacking the demons statement.

"Well," she said, "I'm sick of the demons being, well, jackasses, which is why I left. That's, apparently, also why Yuhi left-"

"You were listening?!"

She glared at him. "No, I just automatically know all this information." Her eyes bulged. "I can read your miiiiinnnnd!!!" That shut him up. "And you two have an alliance with the humans. I'm sure your Mother would like to hear about this new, eh, uprising. We could go to her, let her know, and ask her to send us, let us be in charge, of calming the attack."

That made me think about home, the forest, the palace, all of the people. I actually kind of miss it. I would love to go back again. I still remember the day I left, like it was yesterday…

(-)Flashback(-)

It was a cold, wet day and water was drizzling down and dripping off the leaves. I looked out the balcony in my room at the forest. It was beautiful on a day like this. I'm going to miss it. I love the forest, but I had to leave. I loved my sister, but I couldn't stand the control she and my mother had in my life. I wasn't free to do the things that I wanted to, just because I'm a girl and girls aren't supposed to fight. We're supposed to stay in the palace and sew and cook and learn how to do house keeping things. But I've mastered those a long time ago and I want to fight! I want to train! I spend all the hours that I have to sew making cloaks and fighting clothes. Now my sister has found out that I've been training with Sereg in secret and banned me from it.

Sereg walked next to me and put his arm around my shoulder. I looked at him. "You sure you want to do this?" He nodded.

"I can't let you go out there by yourself. Besides, who's going to train you to fight? Are you ready?" I nodded. We pulled our cloaks around us, strapped our weapons to ourselves, and grabbed our effects.

I walked into my mother's room, and alone. I had to do this alone, even though I was so afraid. She had to understand, though. She just had to. She looked up from her needle work and then dropped it. "Oh my heavens. What are you doing? You can't leave!"

Tears rolled down my cheeks. She stood up and cradled me in her arms. "Mother. I'm sorry. I have to. Please understand. I don't have a choice, I can't stay here, refined, anymore."

"Shhh, it's okay, it's okay. I understand. I knew this day would come, in my heart." She wasn't talking about her gift of foresight, but her mother's intuition. "Sereg's going with you, isn't he?" I sniffed and nodded. "Take care of him, okay? You know he needs all the help he can get." I chuckled.

"Of course." I turned to walk out the door.

"Oh, and Mana?" I turned. "Take care of yourself. I love you."

I smiled and walked out the door. That was three years ago, when I was fourteen Sereg was fifteen.

(-)End Flashback(-)

"I'M JUST FINE! I CAN FIGHT RIGHT NOW! C'MON! I CAN TAKE YOU ON, YOU LITTLE PRISS!!!"

"YEAH, RIGHT! YOU COULDN'T EVEN SENSE THAT I WAS RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!! MR STRONG DEMON. MORE LIKE MR WALKING DISASTER!!!"

Eva and Yuhi were fighting, obviously. Yuhi was standing right up against Eva, yelling into her face, holding up his bowl of soup above her head and she was barring her fangs, getting ready to bite him. Sereg, laughing again, was still sitting in the chair. I'm guessing that they had a fight over when he'd be strong enough to leave. He's saying now. She's saying in a week. I say neither, and I'm the one trained in healing, so it's going to be my word against theirs, no matter how much they did or didn't like it.

I stood up, and high kicked Yuhi in the nose then kneed him in the stomach. He flew back and the bowl of soup plummeted towards the ground and I quickly rolled and grabbed the bowl, without spilling a drop, and set it on the coffee table.

Yuhi was starting to stand up, but I quickly pushed him down again and put my foot on his chest and pointed my finger at him. "LISTEN! I don't care who you are or what you think, but this is MY house, and while YOU'RE staying here, sleeping in MY bed, and eating MY food, you will abide by MY rules, savvy?! You should be fully healed by tomorrow, if you don't piss me off too much! Now shut up, rest, and get everything ready. We're leaving at dawn. Whether you like it or not. And if you don't, you can stop the demons yourself."

Fully fuming (which, by the way, is really hard to get me), I walked off to my room, locked the door, and opened the window, letting the cool air come in and fill my room. Time to pack.

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

I was snickering. "Moron." I muttered. Yuhi sat up and glared at me. "Don't piss Mana off, idiot! That's not exactly the smartest thing to do! She doesn't look it, but she's very powerful and could annihilate you in a split second!" He looked at me, and I knew exactly what he was thinking by the look on his face. Man, he's too easy to read. "Yes, I'm dead serious. She wasn't even using a fraction of her power when she knocked you to the floor. Then, she has her elvish power, which she hasn't even fully found the extent of yet." Now he was staring at me with disbelief.

He shook his head and went outside. Sereg got up and skipped off to the kitchen. I shook my head. He was going to get more sugar. Like he needed any more. I trekked off to Mana's room and knocked on the door. "C'm in." I unlocked the door and walked in. "Hey! Why don't you make yourself useful and help me pack?" I glared at her.

"What do you think we need?" I asked.

She whimpered. "Do you think we could take everything???"

I looked at her weapon cabinet and laughed hysterically. "Sure, we can make the guys carry it all, if they could stand." She laughed with me then sighed.

"Well, help me decide what to take. I already know that I'm going to be bringing all of my weapons, and you probably know what you want, but Sereg only has a few weapons, and Yuhi'll need some, too.

We started sorting through the weapons and pulled out 2 daggers, a long sword, a short sword, a bow and some arrows, a throwing knife, boot swords, bracers, and gloves for each of the guys. That barely even put a dent into her collection. Obviously, she liked to collect weapons.

"We still need a cloak for Yuhi. I'll have to make one tonight." She sighed.

I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her. "What's wrong?"

She contemplated for a moment. "He's going to turn everything upside down, I can sense it. Nothing's going to be the same again."

"I know, I know. I don't like it either." We sat there for a while hugging each other, holding on to the present. We were disrupted by a loud crash downstairs. "Oh, no." I sighed and rolled my eyes. "I better go check on Sereg. I think he's had just a little too much sugar."

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

It felt great outside. It was starting to flurry and snow was covering the blood left on the ground from last night. That made me think about the demon realm and what they were doing now. I scaled a tree and climbed up to the top. Smoke was rising on the horizon. I knew exactly what it was. I scanned to the right, in the general direction of my house on the river. It looked like they had already gotten there. I hoped Natsuki was fine. She should be, but I still worry. She was only a puppy.

My mind was wondering about the past days event and what had to be done, when I felt ice go down the back of my shirts and a voice say "Boo!" I jumped and fell. I was barely hanging onto the branch I was standing on a second ago.

Mana was sitting at the base of the trunk laughing her head off. "THAT WAS SO MEAN!!!! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!!!! "

"No, I wouldn't have! YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN YOUR FACE!!!! It was all like-" and she imitated me, but I'm sure she looked a lot cuter. I grabbed her foot and yanked her down to where she was hanging on the branch next to me. The next thing she did amazed me, especially seeing such a small girl like her do it; she pulled herself up enough to where her leg was even with the branch, then kicked my arms, making me fall, then she swung up, two branches above where she started, all in the blink of an eye! She was fast, and I didn't expect it at all. She looked down at me and stuck her tongue out at me. "HaHa!!!" She jumped down gracefully to where I was and helped me up. "Anyway, I need you to pick colors for your cloak."

What was she talking about? I looked at her funny. "I'm making you a cloak. You don't have one, it's starting to get cold outside, and we're leaving tomorrow. You'll need a cloak! Pick two colors!"

"You can make it that fast?!" She nodded. "What colors do you have?" She started walking back to the house, and I only guessed that meant to follow her, which I did. She led me to her room and showed me a ton of fabric. So many colors! "Hrm…" I contemplated. "I'll go with black and purple."

She nodded, again. "Okay, one black and purple cloak coming up!" She smiled and set off to work.

"You need help," I asked.

"No, thanks. I'd like for the cloak to come out." I growled and walked out, letting her be.

Mana- YAY! Chapter Two!!! uber excited

Eva- This is the farthest you've ever been, right?

Mana- Shhhhh…. That's not the important part 


	3. Chapter 3: Demon Cats and Feathers

Chapter 3: Demon Cats and Feathers

Yesterday's flurries turned into today's storm. Snow swirled around us as we set off right before the sun was about to rise. The snow rose up two feet, slowing our trek slightly. We started off by walking in pairs; Eva and I, Mana and Yuhi, but that soon changed when I threw a snowball straight at Mana's face. "HEY!!!" She yelled, giving me a god awful face. "JERK!!!!" She ran after me and tackled me. I chuckled. I did this on purpose; it was too boring and we needed to warm up before we got to Layaquin Hathnarai.

She drew her sword and flipped it (so that it wouldn't hurt me) and I did the same. We blocked, attacked, and did everything you could think of, when it came to fighting, for about 10 minutes. Yuhi just stared at us. After we finished, he finally spoke, "Oh my gosh, how can you move that fast?! I thought only demons had that kind of power!" I shrugged. We both sheathed our swords. Eva had sat down while we were fighting and probably calculating how much longer we should walk before we stopped for lunch.

"Hmmm… I think we probably need to continue for another seven hours before we stop for lunch. We can take a break before that, of course!" She said after the mean looks she got. She stood up and we trudged on, well, except for Mana who skipped on.

"Does she always have that much energy?"

"Oh, yes. She never sits still." For hours later, we laughed and joked and carried on. Finally, seven hours later, we stopped for lunch. "We made good time," I commented. "We should be to a stopping point soon!" I smiled, but Mana frowned.

"Don't smile. You know that the "stopping point" means." She rolled her eyes and set off to cook. She was right, I shouldn't be smiling, but I didn't want the others to get worried. "Go get some wood, Sereg." She seemed kind of jumpy now. I had an idea to why, as well. Obeying, for fear of loosing my lunch if I didn't, I went off into the forest we stopped by and searched for whatever would could be found. After a few minutes, something tackled me from above. I rolled over and pushed Eva off me, but she bounced back like a spring and tackled me to the ground. We rolled and we ended up with her laying on my arm looking up and me and I on my side looking down at her.

"Hey." I kissed her nose and she smiled and huggled me. "What?"

"I've missed you!"

"What do you mean?! We've been walking together the whole day!"

"Yes, but I haven't had you to myself!"

"Whiney baby." I stuck my tongue out at her, then she glared at me and bit me. "OW!"

"Ha! Serves you right!." She stuck her tongue out back at me. "What was Mana talking about, though? 'You know what the stopping point means'? What's that mean?"

I shifted my eyes to try to avoid the question, but she growled and glared at me until I caved in. "Alright! We're coming up on a mystical forest. But it's no bit deal, I don't know what she's so worried about. She probably just has bad memories from it because she was 14 when she went through it with me." She glared at me, not believing me. "That's it, I swear!" Oh, man, she's going to kill me when we get there and she finds out how bad it is. Oh well.

"Liar," she said and kissed me. I smiled and kissed her back. "But a liar who can kiss, so I forgive you." She stuck her tongue out at me yet again.

-----------------

We ate some rabbit that Yuhi caught for us. Poor rabbit. Eh, it was going to die eventually, anyway, and we needed the food. I just tried not to think of the poor, cute little thing when I ate it. I made Yuhi cut it up for me, so I didn't have to see it mutilated. After lunch, we decided that we didn't really want to go any farther that day, even though we needed to make good time, none of us really felt like it. Yuhi, Sereg, and Eva stayed around the fire and talked, but I wanted to be by myself for a while and I went off wandering for quite a while.

I danced around the forest, remembering Telume, my home and the times when I took dancing and sewing and many other things of the sort. I did miss my home, but I don't regret moving out. Not one bit, do I.

---Flashback---

"Don't you miss it?" Sereg asked me.

"Well, yes, of course I miss it. But I'm not going back, no matter what. I can't, Sereg. You can. You can do what you want; you're the male and you would never have rule of the realm, so they're not as strict on you as they are on me. If Laamina ever dies, then I'm next in line, thus, I have no freedom." He nodded in understanding.

"Yes, yes, I know."

---End---

I heard a deep rumbling sound behind me. It sounded almost like…! A Raka, one of the meanest cats in all the realms! And this thing's not kitty; it comes up to the average man's waist, and I'm quite short as it is! I turned around so I could find the Raka and bind it, but as I was turning around, someone yelled "MANA! WATCH OUT!!!" And I saw Yuhi jump in from of the attacking cat.

"OH MY GOSH, YUHI!!!" I tried to run up to help, but he just yelled at me to get out of the way. I did what he said, but if it looked like he was going to get hurt, I was getting involved. The cat didn't harm him, but he hadn't killed it yet and it was still attacking. After a few minutes of dodging each other, the Raka slashed Yuhi's chest, but then he killed it. "Yuhi!!!" I ran up to him and touched his shoulder. "Yuhi! You shouldn't have done that! I could have taken care of it with a simple binding spell!" Tears brimmed my eyes. "You moron! You're hurt now!"

"It was about to pounce you!!! You wouldn't have had TIME to bind it!!"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" I glared at him.

"It would have killed you!"

"I could have taken care of it mys--" I heard a mewing sound and looked up to the tree behind me. There was a baby Raka up in the tree, at the very top. "Oh no! I think we just killed its mother! That's why she was attacking me! The poor thing, he's going to die if we don't get it down!" I started scaling the tree to climb to get it, but Yuhi pulled me down. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! IT'S GOING TO DIE! STOP IT!!!"

"Sh.. Shhh. SHUT UP!!!" He glared at me, but I glared daggers back. "You'll hurt yourself if you climb up there! It's too high, you could die."

"I don't care."

"Well I do. I can get it down. Just, don't freak out, okay."

"Wha-?"

"Just, promise me you won't freak out."

"Bu-!"

"PROMISE!"

"OKAY! Okay! I promise! But what are you going to-" He took his shirt off, and his chest was dripping blood. "What the!"

"Just hold it, okay?" What he was about to do freaked me out, but amazed me at the same time. He started glowing purple and his back started to spasm, and two, gorgeous purple wings sprouted out of his back. Bug-eyed, I watched as he flew up to the top of the tree and carefully grabbed the kitten and floated back down. He handed me the kitten and looked aside, but I was still looking at him. "Are you afraid of me now?"

Hugging the frightened kitten, I walked around him to look at the wings. The feathers were a deep, deep purple. I ran my hands over the feathers. They were so soft. I put my cheek on them and hugged a wing. He turned and looked at me. "It's amazing," I said.

"You mean… you're not… sickened or anything?

"No, oh my, how could I be? Can you fly okay with them? Like a bird, or something?"

"Yeah, here," he quickly grabbed me and cradled me in his arms and took off. I screamed and held on the even more frightened kitten. He took me above the canopy of the trees. I could see for miles around. It was twilight and the stars were beginning to come out. "So amazing." I looked all around me and took everything in.

"You like it?" He was smiling at me.

"Oh, I love it! How can you resist not being up here all the time?!"

"Eh, well…" He trailed off. We started to float down and he landed gently on the ground and set me down.

"We need to take care of your cuts before they get infected."

"Okay, let's head back," He grabbed his shirt and pulled his wings in. "Hey, could you not tell Eva or Sereg for me, please?"

I smiled. "Don't worry about it. Though, I'm sure they wouldn't freak about it, either."

"Don't want to take a chance." That I could understand. I cradled the kitten. She was starting to settle down and was starting to fall asleep. "What are you going to name it?"

"I think I'm going to name her Chiyo." He smiled. We got back to the camp and I wrapped his wounds and we told the curious Eva and Sereg about what happened. Eva loved Chiyo and was playing with her while talking to Sereg and I. Yuhi was really reserved and stayed off to the side.

It was getting late and we all were dozing off. I was asleep, but then I woke up and I saw Yuhi walking away from me, and my lips were warm and wet, when they should be dry from the cold air. I put two and two together and figured out that he had kissed me. "Oh my gosh," I whispered to myself. He was falling in love with me. I smiled and wriggled my arms from around Chiyo and followed him. I found him on a cliff, over looking a beautiful lake reflecting the full moon and stars. I walked right behind him and touched his arm. He turned around and looked down, surprised and confused. I looked up to him, "Did you mean it?"

He flushed. "Mean what?"

"The kiss?"

He breathed and looked to the side. "Of course."

I smiled and wrapped my arms around him and laid my head on his chest. Surprised at first, he then wrapped his arms around me and held me tight and laid his head on mine. "You're not mad?"

"Mm… no." It had only been a few days or so, but he had no evil intention. I heard him muttering in his sleep when was injured and his body was weak, but he had a pure heart. I trusted him. Completely.

He started to glow again, and soon he was carrying me into the night sky. We flew between the mountains and over the water. I reached my hand down and skimmed the water, causing wakes, along with his beating wings. It was amazing! I loved every minute of it. He stopped in the center of the lake and we floated above it. I wrapped my arms around his neck to make sure I wouldn't fall. After a moment of silence, I spoke up. "Why me, though?"

"You're the only one who's ever accepted me, or even cared." He kissed me.

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Eva- T-T That's so cute!!! -sniffle- -huggles Sereg-

Mana- Sorry that It was my POV for most of the Chapter 

Sereg- :p Story hog

Mana- HEY!!!! -glare-


	4. Chapter 4: Murmurs

Chapter 4: Murmurs

I was so annoyed. As cute as the cat was, and as beautiful the music Yuhi was playing was, I absolutely hated having him here with us. He was taking my Mana away from me! MY Mana, not his! He barely even knows her! I walked quickly ahead of the group to try to get away from him before I hurt him.

I ran away from the group as they lollygagged around, which was fine, by all means; we had the whole day to get to the forest and it would only take half of it. After I distanced myself, I slowed down to a more leisurely pace. I walked, consumed in my own thoughts about what's happened over the past week. I remember what Mana said in her room only about five days ago. Wow, that was it? I remember how she was sad that nothing would ever be the same again. I believed her and I had felt it too, but I didn't expect the change to come so dramatically so soon! He was taking her heart and away from me and I couldn't stand it!

All of a sudden, I felt two hands on my side. I jumped, screamed, and turned around to find Sereg and scream at him some more. "DON'T DO THAT TO ME, DANGIT! THAT TICKLES!!!" I glared at him.

He was holding his sides from laughter. "Isn't… that the…. Point?" He chocked out. I walked off, but he grabbed my foot and pulled me to the ground. I fell and snow flew out around me. "Hey, listen…" He crawled next to me and held me. "What's wrong?" He kissed my forehead.

"Nothing," I huffed.

"Nothing?"

"I said nothing!" He looked at me. I looked aside. Then, guilty under his stare, I looked back. "It's just…" I trailed off.

"Go on," he urged.

I groaned. "Well, with Yuhi here, it's weird and I hate it! Mana's giving a lot of her attention to him and… and… I don't like it!" Tears welled up in my eyes and he drew me tighter to his chest. Tears flowed down my face. "It's never going to be the same again, no mater what! She's always going to be distanced from me! I'm starting to feel the distance, and I hate it and it's all HIS fault because he stole her heart and he's holding it in his hands and I JUST HATE IT!!!!!!!!!" I bawled into his shirt.

He ran his hand through my hair and comforted me. "If you haven't noticed, which apparently you haven't, nothing's been the same since you and I have been together. You and Mana have been drifting apart ever since then. She went from being the only girl in my life to having to share the role with you. She was also went from your best friend, to your second best friend. That's what happens, and it can't be helped. Yes, he holds her heart, but she willingly gave it and she also holds his who willingly gave it. I wouldn't doubt that things start to get better since she can relate more and it's not as awkward."

I looked up. "Really? You think so?"

He nodded. "Yes, I really do. Besides, he really does love her."

I sniffed. "How do you know?"

He smiled. "Because he looks at her the same way I look at you." He leaned down and kissed me.

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There are no words to describe how I'm feeling right now. I can't believe it. All of my life, I have been rejected and shunned and laughed at, and only after a few days of knowing this one girl, she had completely accepted me for who I am. But, the sad thing was, is that she doesn't exactly know all of who I am. And I'm still scared that she might reject me. And I didn't want to hurt her. But we had gotten this far and it was farther than I had ever been with anyone, in the sense of them accepting me, that is.

We got bored walking, so I pulled out my flute and started playing and Mana danced to the music. After a while, I noticed that Eva had run off. "Shouldn't we go after her?"

"No." Sereg and Mana answered at the same time.

"Okay…" I shrugged and continued on playing. Even later after that, I noticed that Sereg had run off after her. I stopped playing and turned to Mana. "Where'd they go?"

She spun around me. "Oh, just taking off. Eva doesn't like new people. She's probably talking to Sereg about it and she's probably going to end up talking to you about something along the lines of "Don't you dare hurt her" or something."

I chuckled. "Why would I dare do such a thing around her?! I don't want her to kill me!" She gave me a mean glare and punched me. "HEY! I wasn't serious!!!" She ran and I chased her, tickling her. Then, all of a sudden, I felt something; something evil. I snapped up and my eyes widened.

Unaware of anything, Mana got up and jumped on me, but I just stood there. "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked, still hanging on me.

I shook my head. "Nothing." I smiled. No point in making her worry. "Let's just hurry up and catch up with the others, okay?" She jumped off and I grabbed her hand and we kept on walking.

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Mana and Yuhi walked up to the cave walking a few feet apart, not too far behind us, though we did already have the fire going and food cooking. Yuhi took Sereg off to the side to talk about who knows what. Mana helped me cooked dinner and I picked at her about Yuhi. "So," I said, "What's up with you and Yuhi?" I nudged her.

She blinked at me. "Huh?"

I glared at her. "I saw you guys go off into the forest last night. I also noticed that it took you several hours to come back, and when you did, he was carrying you, asleep."

"Oh, that." She meekly smiled. "Well, I'm not even sure that there really was anything, y' know? He seems so distanced today." She sighed.

"HAH! I knew it!!!" I gave a victory pose, but that didn't even get her to smile. I walked next to her and put an arm around her. "It'll be alright. Sereg's sure that he likes you, it'll just take some time. I mean, the relationship did spring up quickly, so it'll take some getting used to, that's all. He has a lot on his mind, too. So just don't worry about it, 'kay?" I nudged her and she hugged me for a long time. I smiled. She needed that.

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I told Sereg about their presence. I told him that I could also put a spell around us so that we would be protected from them for another day, at the most. They were probably looking for me, wondering why I had abandoned them. They probably were planning on torturing me to the brink of death, then healing me to do it all over again. Fell monsters. I couldn't stand what thousands of years had made them. Ever since the king had been lost, over a thousand years ago, they turned into the mongrels they are now. No one knows what happened to the king's descendants, but they were out there somewhere.

I made sure I was at least a mile away from the group. I started chanting demonic words. My wings fluttered out of my back and I floated several yards off of the ground, glowing a bright purple. I remained like this for hours and continued chanting the words until finally the spell was forged and sealed. Tired and exhausted, I slowly made my way back to the camp.

The fire cheerfully lit the cave in the darkness of the night. Everyone had fallen asleep and they had left me some more food, in case I was still hungry. I was starving, but too tired to eat. I looked over at Mana. She was peacefully sleeping with Chiyo cuddled into her arms. I wanted to go lay next to her so badly, but I couldn't risk hurting her. I just couldn't. So I wrapped my cloak tightly around me and laid down in the back of the cave, which wasn't too far away from anyone else, considering they basically went as far back as they could.

The next thing I knew, Mana was sitting right next to me with her cloak draped over her shoulders and a sleeping Chiyo in her arms. She just stared at me. I stared back. I finally couldn't take it. "What?!" She poked me. I looked at her funny. "Y' know? I don't know what you're used to where you came from or how you were raised, but how I was raised is that you don't kiss someone and tell them you care, then distance yourself."

I inwardly cringed. "Mana…" I grabbed her hand. "I… I just…" I took a deep breathe. "I don't want to hurt you. You mean too much and I don't want to loose you."

She grabbed my hand and moved closer to me, pulling herself under my cloak and throwing hers over the both of us. "Yuhi, by distancing yourself, you are hurting me. So don't, okay?" She laid her head on my bandaged chest and I wrapped my arms and pulled her closer to me. Two tears rolled down my face. I didn't deserve her, I know that, but I'm not letting her go for anything. Not even my past.

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Nobody wanted to get up the next day, I mean, besides the fact that we were all definitely not morning persons, we were dreading going into Layaquin Hathnarai, which, from I finally dragged out of Sereg, was a very dangerous and deadly forest that few ever get through alive.

Knowing that we would need as much time as possible to make it through the woods, I started getting everyone up. Finally, after ten minutes of strenuous work, everyone was up except for Mana. Time to resort to my cruel, but very effective method. I pulled off the covers, dumped snow onto her, then tickled her. She bolted out of bed and glared at me. I pointed at the innocent Yuhi. She didn't know a difference and she started attacking him. I snickered and started warming some food from last night, hoping it was still good. It should be, considering how cold it was.

Yuhi, face red from Mana slapping him, sat down by the small fire to warm up. Finally woken up, Mana grabbed Chiyo and sat next to him and laid her head on his shoulder. She was asleep within seconds. Yuhi looked at her head then back at me. "Not a morning person?"

I shook my head. "Not at all." We breakfasted and set off into the woods. dun dun dunnnnn (a/n: sorry… I'm eating sweet tarts, I'm at my best friend's house, and it's my birthday…. Hyper much?)

"Layaquin Hathnarai." We stood on the edge of the forest. "The Forest of Murmurs. Very dangerous. Very, shall I say, mind boggling. You'll be lucky if you don't go insane. Stick together and be careful. Don't listen to the voices and don't follow the light. Watch out for anything moving. Or anything not moving." Sereg stared at us to make sure we understood.

"Heh. So, basically, watch your ass, right?" I glared at Yuhi. He smiled and put his hand in the small of Mana's back and gently led her in. I intervened and extended my arm out to her. She grabbed it and we walked in together, leaving the guys behind us. The trees quickly became thicker and the sounds of voices more evident. We went through most of the forest without encountering anything, which was really strange. The sky was darkening and the time was nearing the evening.

"This is too odd," Sereg said from behind us. Just our luck, as soon as he had said that, something jumped out of a cluster of bushes and trees and wrapped around Yuhi. Yuhi struggled to get the thing off of him, but it was too long. It intertwined itself in Yuhi's limbs and all over his body. I had no clue what it was and it looked really, really odd; the thing, miniature dragon, I was guessing, was at least six feet long, grey in color, red eyes, and about foot long, thick whiskers protruding from its nostrils. Whatever it was, it looked SO cool. Then it started breathing fire. Mana's shriek brought me back to the realization that, even though this creature was cool, Yuhi was getting attacked by it and, even though I didn't like Yuhi, Mana did, thus, I was obliged to help the guy, but I didn't know what to do. Mana ran over to him and started tugging on the creature. Annoyed, it unwrapped itself and snapped after Mana. She did a quick ice spell to bind it. It floated there for a second, frozen in solid ice, then the ice around it shattered and the creature started to attack again. I was baffled. It was a fire creature, Mana bound it with ice, it should be killed, or at least completely frozen. Then something hit me, I remembered something that Sereg said about the forest. "Everything is opposite," I remembered him saying. Of course. Normally, the phrase "You can't fight fire with fire." is true, but since everything's opposite in this forest, then that statement becomes false, meaning that in order to kill a fire creature, you have to use fire that means… "Fires of the Earth, come to me!" Fire leaped out of my hand and towards the creature attacking Mana. Now, what happened was completely inevitable and I can't believe I was stupid enough to not realize that Yuhi was going to jump in front of the fire to push Mana, who was completely safe from my spells, to protect her, meaning that not only did the flame kill the creature, but it completely singed him and his shrieks of pain rose much higher over the shrieks of the dying mystery creature, which was a mystery in itself. Then Mana started to shriek.

She ran up to Yuhi, put his head in her lap, and looked at the burns. It looked like it burnt the front of his chest, which was bandaged. "Sereg!!! Help me carry him! Hurry, we need to get him out of here as soon as possible! I can't help him now, it's too dangerous." Tears brimmed her eyes. I inwardly smirked. I really didn't like the guy, to begin with. The only reason I would care if he lived or not is for Mana's sake.

We ran out of the forest and just ignored anything that looked like it would want to attack us or looked threatening or anything of the sort. Without a care in the world, Chiyo jovially trotted along with us as we hurriedly tried to find our way out of the forest. We made great time. At one point, we stumbled across a river and I suggested using the water to wash some of his wounds really quick, but they both yelled at me something about the river being poisonous and causing you to go into a deep sleep where the trees would then devour you or something. Yeah, right.

We finally made it to the edge of the forest, but we didn't stop there. We made sure we were a little ways away from the forest so that nothing would wander out of it in the night while we were resting. By pure luck, the forest ended in a valley of a mountain, meaning more caves. We found a perfect little cave a ways away from the forest and we rested there.

Mana had us start a fire and melt some snow for Yuhi. She carefully peeled the bandages that melted to his skin and his cut. Chiyo helped us gather the wood for the fire then watched Mana, who shooed him away so she could concentrate. She bit her bottom lip as she cleaned the burns and wrapped them with her cloak, the only thing that she could think of to use. Luckily, Yuhi's cloak hadn't gotten in the way, thus didn't get burned that much.

I stood quite a ways away from Mana and Yuhi and glared at him as he captured all of her attention. I really did wish he would die. I hated that he took her away from me and I would do anything possible to keep her to myself. "You want him to die." Sereg quietly said as he walked up to me, reading my mind.

I looked stunned at him, "What the hell do you mean?! It's not like I actually meant for him to get in the way!"

"I never said you did this on purpose, all I said was that you want him to die. Don't deny it, you can't. It's written all over your face, I can see it in your eyes."

My face flushed with shame. I knew he was right and I hated it. I hated how he could always read me and I hated how he was always right. I did want him to die and I wanted it with all my heart, and I couldn't help it, no matter how hard I tried. In the end, I still wanted him dead. If that's what it took to get my Mana back, then so be it. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not going to resort myself to cold-blooded murder, but I'm not going to wish for him to get better.

Mana started the healing process. She started to glow blue and floated over him. This time, he glowed purple as well, but the glows intertwined and turned into one purple-ish blue glow. It was weird, but I thought nothing more of it.

Mana, exhausted, collapsed next to him with his hand in hers and Chiyo laying between them.

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The next morning, Mana was surprisingly the first one up and was changing the bandages on Yuhi with the left over of her cloak. She washed off his chest, re-bandaged it, then started the healing process again. He did look remarkably better for only one night. My hopes failed and I was grumpy the rest of the day.

Finally when we got to the next resting place, this time under some rocks that formed a mini-cave, Yuhi woke up and was able to walk around a little bit. Yuhi and Mana were yelling at each other about whether or not he should get some rest.

"YUHI! I SWEAR, IF YOU DON'T LAY DOWN RIGHT NOW AND GET SOME MORE REST, I'M GOING TO HARM YOU SO BADLY, YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO LAY DOWN!!!"

"I TOLD YOU, I DON'T NEED ANYMORE REST! I'VE BEEN ASLEEP FOR THE LAST DAY!!!"

They were both fuming, but I was fuming more than the both of them together. I finally blew up. "IF YOU BOTH DON'T SHUT UP AND SLEEP, I'M GOING TO HURT THE BOTH OF YOU MYSELF!" They shut up, but I stormed off.

I was looking over a cliff at a river in the valley below us when I heard Mana behind me. "Why don't you like him? Why do you have to be so cruel?"

"What do you mean?" I growled and continued to stare at the river bellow, instead of turning to face her. I'd rather fall of the cliff than face her crying.

"You know exactly well what I mean." Her voice quavered. "You hate him with every fiber of your body and you want him dead because he's taking me away from you." Her voice was low and angered. Tears streamed down my face. "Well, I have news for you, he's not taking me away from you; you are. You're the one who keeps watching over me like I'm a child, like I can't take care of myself, like I need help. And you're also the one who took Sereg away from me, which also distanced yourself from me. But in case you haven't noticed, I can take care of myself. And with you and Sereg always wanting to be with each other, which is fine, I've been lonely. You can't have everything. You can't stay as close to me as you were before and still be as close to you as you are to Sereg right now. You just can't. But this way is better because we both have someone and then we can both have each other. But you're the one who's going to have to see that, I can't make you see, Eva, I just can't. But, please. Please be nice to Yuhi. He really is a nice guy, sure he's a little hard-headed, but, hey, I am too. Please, Eva. I love him." She stood there for a while then finally walked off. I collapsed and cried tears of anger and sorrow. But I knew she was right. He wasn't that bad, for her. But if I wanted anything to ever be close to the same between Mana and I again, I had to be able to accept him.

-----------------

I tried to dry my tears as I walked back into the cave. Luckily Sereg wasn't around anywhere. Chiyo came leaping up to me, but after seeing me, sobered and rubbed her back along my feet.

"Hey," Yuhi greeted me, with a smile.

"-hey," I meekly replied and tried to return the smile, but I just collapsed and more tears streamed down my face.

"Hey. Hey, hey, now, come here." Yuhi crawled over to me and pulled me onto his lap and cradled me in his arms. I laid my head on his shoulder and cried until my eyes were dry. He ran his fingers through my hair and held me tight to his chest, even though I'm sure it hurt him. After a while, I wriggled out of his arms, but he pulled me back. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I don't want to hurt you."

He gave me an odd look and dragged me back onto him. "What on earth are you talking about? I'm perfectly fine, as long as you're here." I smiled. He pulled his cloak over the both of us and we fell asleep like that; me on him, him leaning against the wall, the cloak on the both of us, and Chiyo curled up on his head.

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My body was weak and I was tired from crying. I didn't want to move. I didn't want to do anything, and most of all, I didn't want human interaction. Just to my luck, Sereg walks up behind me right then and puts his arm around me. I lash out and swat at him, yelling "Don't touch me!! LEAVE ME ALONE!" I growled deeply and clearly, just to make sure he's not confused that I don't want him here, that I wanted to be alone. Obviously, he didn't get the picture because he moved towards me again and put his arm on me, again. This time, I grabbed his arm, and sank my teeth in, drawing blood and sucked on it. 'Damn it, Sereg,' I thought, 'If you're not going to leave me the hell alone, you might as well be good for something.' He just stood there and stroked my hair. I was shocked.

"Eva, you should know this by now. No matter how much pain you inflict upon me, no matter what you do, no matter how strange you act, I'm not leaving you. I'll always be here until the day I die, even if you cause my death because I love you, Eva, and nothing you do can change that." Once I thought my eyes were completely dry and unable to produce any more tears, they form another waterfall, larger than the one before.

I unlatched my teeth from his arm and rested my head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around my shaking shoulders and drew me in. "Sereg," I chocked out. "God, Sereg, you're too damn nice to me, I don't deserve you. I hurt you and I hurt Mana, but you both keep on loving me no matter what. My tears soaked his shirt.

"Who's to say that you don't deserve it? I think that you do." He hugged me again, then tilted my chin up and kissed me. "Now, dry your tears and tell me what's wrong."

I sat in his lap and told him everything that Mana had said. We sat there in silence for a while then he nodded. "You know, she's right. I told you. But, whatever you do, don't feel betrayed. She doesn't love you any less than she did before, but she loves someone else, now, too, and she needs you to accept the one she loves or she'll feel out of place. Because of her love for you, she feels that she needs you to approve of the other that she loves, Yuhi, or she'll never fit, she'll be torn between two loves." I nodded with him. Sounded reasonable. And it made me feel better. Felt good to be reassured that she really did still love me. I was glad of that.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shooting star. I pointed at it, gasped, then quickly closed my eyes and made a wish. Before I could open my eyes again, Sereg had his lips around mine, kissing me. He followed my jaw down to my neck and covered my neck in kisses. "What'd you wish for?" He whispered.

"That you'd kiss me," I purred. We fell asleep embracing each other under the stars.

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Mana- woOoOoOo….. LOOOOOONG chapter!!! :D -star-eyed-

Eva- W00t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -reads-

Sereg- What the… -shrugs-

Yuhi- -sleeps-

Mana- -shakes head- weirdoes…


End file.
